"Fat White Vampire Blues", the new novel by Andrew Fox, is probably
one of the strangest books you could read this year, as well as one of
the most enjoyable. It's mandatory viewing for any fan of the
vampire/horror genre in general, and a good dietary supplement for
those whose summer reading is seriously lacking in pulpy, off-beat fun.
The fat white vampire in question is one Jules Duchon, New Orleans
born, bred and undead. And his blues is this: too much good livin'.
Too many years of feeding off the fat-rich blood that the veins of the Big
Easy have to offer have taken their toll on poor Jules: he now weighs
in at a staggering 450 pounds, & is worried he's contracting vampire
diabetes. He's definitely not the man (thing? undead fiend?) he used
to be, but still, the scariest fate awaiting him is that of a low-fat
diet--until Malice X enters his (un)life. Malice is the street-smart,
upstart and decidedly buff black vampire that demands that Jules curb his
feeding habits to "whites only", or face the consequences. Those
consequences are what make up the bulk of our bulky anti-hero's
off-kilter journey of self-discovery and liberation--one that seems to
delight in shuckin' and jivin' the reader in all sorts of unlikely and
very rewarding directions.
Sure, this is Jules' story, but the real star of the show here is New Orleans
itself. Its' fading locales and details are lovingly evoked by Fox in all
their delicate, eccentric hot-house glory, and the rhythms of that town
define the novel's rhythms: it is at turns funky, obtuse, ornery and whimsical.
Jules can't bear to change his ways anymore than he can bear the thought of
leaving his home town--no matter what Malice X threatens. One of the bittersweet
notes this novel hits is not of Jules' battle with the new flashy hip-hop culture
Malice represents (as opposed to the old school French Quarter jazz Jules and Fox
obviously loves so much), but that of another, undefined vampiric source: the
strip-malling of America, the encroachment of redundancy, where local
names are replaced by brand names, and every place is the same, no
matter where you are. Through Jules' eyes, we see New Orleans slowly
falling victim to this self-replicating virus--its' individuality
wiped clean bit by bit, block by block. Jules is wiser than we are.
He knows a bled-dry victim when he sees one. We simply line up to become one.
Old Jules also represents a big, flaming loogie in the face of the whole Anne Rice aristocratic undead pantheon---Fox is practically shouting, "Hey, lady! Take a look at what a real New Orleans bloodsucker looks like!" Ms. Rice even appears as a background character of sorts, in the form of local horror writer Agatha Longrain (yuk-yuk!), whose unholy offspring are the
pasty-faced, Goth-dressing vampiric wanna-be's clogging up Decatur
Street, blocking the way between Jules and his next calorie-rich,
home-grown meal.
Another strand of New Orleans DNA deeply entwined in the proceedings here is that of native son John Kennedy Toole's great cult-novel, "A Confederacy of Dunces." Jules and Ignatius J. Reilly share many qualities: they are both
obese mammas-boys out to find their way in the world, prone to endearing
delusions of grandeur as well as epic bouts of self-loathing. They
both represent in their own overwrought ways the twins of inspiration and
sloth that live in all of us--and so we cheer them on even they disgust
us, as we laugh at their fantastically elaborate foibles. Because they
are us, fully dressed in all our glory and (very literal) dirty
laundry. He is heavy, yes, but he's still my brother.
In the end, "Fat White Vampire Blues" is that odd bedfellow who wears
its high and low culture roots proudly, and helps to blur the
distinction between the two. It revels in the bayou-like miasmic
paste of its varied inspirations (pulp fiction, horror movies and comic
books, etc.), while turning over that mulch to find surprising tweaks
and flashes of light in those very genre-specific constrictions. Who knew
that a vampire's ability to take the form of a bat or wolf was both
tied to cultural prejudices and Einstein's theories on "Conservation of
Mass"? Well, Mr. Fox knew, apparently, and he's more than happy to pass that information onto us. He's cooked up a spicy gumbo of a book whose racial politics and potty-humor might make you a bit queasy at times, but like any good Bourbon Street drunk, you're still left asking for more.